The tragic story behind him
by deck.ivy
Summary: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter with a hint of Black butler thrown in at the end. First FanFic. Criticism Welcome


"Anita you idiot! Can't you see that he loves you?! He believes that he is a monster." I haled up a hand to stop the reply that was already forming on her lips.

"And before you say anything I know that you believe that too but just hear me out. Just hear me out please. You say that you're not prejudice but I say that you are. You are very prejudice, you won't even look at him twice just because he is a vampire. A monster but you don't know half of it. You believe that he is the vilest monster ever to live and you judge him based on that. You judged him before you knew him and that changed how you saw him. You never thought that maybe just maybe that Jean-Claude thought the same, and believes that he is beyond redemption. He truly believes that he is dammed.

Jean-Claude has had a long and tragic history. He grew up in the slumps during the 1400's. He was born in France on a dirt floor to a poor French family. He was sold to an aristocratic family when he was 12 to be the whipping boy for the only son of the family, who was the same age as Jean-Claude. The son acted like he was the prince. Jean-Claude was raised with the boy and treated the same as him by the boy's parents. He was given everything the son was given and received the same tutors and education. Whenever the son misbehaved, which was quite often because he knew that it wouldn't be him that suffered, it was Jean-Claude who was punished. Oh and punished he was. He was whipped, he was beaten within an inch of his life, he was stabbed, he was burned, and he was tortured. He was tortured so badly that buy the next day he couldn't walk in a straight line. And to top all that off he was raped by the boy's father even by the boy himself. That whole family enjoyed the idea of having power over someone. They are what we would call power thirsty and Jean-Claude was the perfect victim. The mother was ill so she was bed ridden. There was no one to help him so he just grinned and bore it. All of this was kept a secret so as not to risk the reputation of the son and his upper class family.

Before he was 12 though his life was a little bit better it was still sad. His father died shortly after he was born and his mother turned to prostitution just to make ends meet. Jean-Claude was the middle child his older brother, by about 6 years, died in battle lands away and his poor younger sister who was only 6 years old died from the plague. His mother turned to drugs and brought strange men home on a regular basis. He acted like a father to his sister keeping her out of sight when their mother went on a rampage looking for drugs. Barley even 2 weeks after the death of his brother, his sister surrendered to the plague. By the end of that month his mother sell him to that family for more drugs. At the age of 18, the same age his brother was when he went off to fight a war not his own, the family kicked him out to the streets. He only had the clothes on his back, which were more like rags, to his name. He lived on the streets and he hid. He hid because he feared what would happen if the family saw him.

He learned to hide both his emotions, thanks to the family, and his physical appearance, thanks to the streets. He learned how to be sneaky and how to keep people underestimate him and to keep himself as low of a threat as possible. One day he was careless, and that changed his life forever. He was walking along the street begging, how he laughed at himself and he was sure that the family would most definitely be laughing at how low he was brought to beg. He was by no means a royal but he did have pride. Anyway he was begging for food or coins. That's when his life changed forever. He met Julia. She was a bright light to chase away the darkness that always seemed to hang over him. He felt happiness for the first time since his sister died. She later became his wife, but she died in childbirth and took their child with her.

After that, Jean-Claude gave up. He gave up on life, on love, on everything. He felt pain, sorrow, agony, and hopelessness. But he kept all of it hidden and kept it locked deep down inside him where it couldn't hurt him anymore. He hid it and locked it away. He planned to die that night. He planned to follow his beloved Julia and son. He was wrong. He went back to the streets and did the one thing that he was sure would lead to his death, and if it was someone else on a different night than it would have. He went to The Underworld. He stole someone's knife, and threw it as hard as he could at the man. He missed and by missing he sealed his fate. For he never saw where the knife ended up, he just assumed that it fell, but he was wrong. The knife ended up embedded in an arm. But this was not a normal arm. It was the arm of the worst kind of demon. It was deep in the arm of a Vampire.

But enough of the knife. The man that Jean-Claude stole the knife from attacked him but that was fine. He wanted to die. He never raised a hand in his defense. Jean-Claude took every blow every kick. He took them until he felt the blissful darkness close in. But then he felt the blows stopping. _No! Keep hitting! I want to die! Let me die! _He cried silently to God. But no answer was forthcoming. He heard the footsteps walk away, and still he felt the darkness closing in but not enough to drown in. Suddenly he felt a presence hovering over him. He opened his eyes and looked up. What he saw was what he believed to be an angel. He stared into the most beautiful eyes that he has ever seen. Her face was unearthly beautiful. _Am I dead? Is this an angel come to take me to my beloved wife and child? Is this the end that I sought? _ Suddenly her beautiful face transformed into that of a nightmare. She, no it, pulled back its lip to reveal sharp fangs. Jean-Claude stared up in horror. _No! It can't be! NO! Why this? Have I not suffered enough?_

You must remember that this was in the 1400's the people back then were very superstitious. This was a time of witches and witchcraft. Where demons owned the night. Demons the preyed upon the weak, the humans that stumbled too far into the darkness. The vilest of demons: The Vampire. A creature that was ungodly. They defied the Reaper's touch, they were deathly pale, and they lived on the blood of others. Creatures that when they found you, only God can help you. They were damned to hell should they die. It was virtually impossible to kill them, only fire could. But as Jean-Claude looked into the soulless eyes, he knew that he would never see his beloved Julia or his stillborn son ever again. For they went to heaven and if this creature bit him, and he suspected that it will, then he would forever be damned, cursed to hell. He would never see them again.

The creature reared back its head, and struck at his neck. Much like a snake does. He felt the fangs digging deep in his neck, gnawing on it like a dog on a bone. He felt his life draining from him with each pull and suck from the foul creature above him. _I'm sorry, Julia. I've failed you and our son again._ That was the last thought that he had before that darkness claimed him.

When he woke up he had no idea where he was. He was in a room with brown everywhere. He learned that the vampire that bit him was called Lissette. He felt a stirring deep inside him. It was different then the burning in his throat. He learned that Lissette was from the line of Belle Morte. He had an unnatural attachment toward her. He felt anger and lust. He was at peace and when he asked her what the stirring was she told him that it was called the Ardeur which was a rare power amongst those in the line of Belle Morte which he was now a part of.

His first Master of the City was Julian, who would bring in people for Jean-Claude to feed his Ardeur upon, but people Jean-Claude would not have chosen for himself. In his desperation he took them, much to the amusement of Julian, who knew that Jean-Claude would take whatever he was offered. When he'd been a vampire for five years, Lissette sent for Belle Morte at the Vampire Council to teach Jean-Claude control over his Ardeur. Belle Morte sent Asher to look Jean-Claude over and to report back to her. When Asher returned, he advised against bringing Jean-Claude to the Vampire Council because he was jealous of Jean-Claude's beauty. Ignoring Asher's advice, Belle Morte sent for both Jean-Claude and his creator, Lissette.

Despite Asher's initial reluctance to send for Jean-Claude, once he was inside the Council, Asher and Jean-Claude formed a friendship and were often paired together by Belle Morte to do services for her (whether this involved seducing someone or tending to her own needs). They quickly became her favorite pair of lovers. They were within her utmost "inner circle" of truly favored. Asher and Jean-Claude left the Vampire Council and Belle Morte for the safety of Asher's human servant, Julianna. For many years they travelled together, but when Jean-Claude left to visit his dying mother, Julianna and Asher were captured by the Church. Julianna was burned to death for witchcraft and Asher was disfigured by holy water. To save Asher, Jean-Claude returned to Belle Morte for aid. Giving away a hundred years of servitude to Belle if she saved Asher. After he returned to the Council years later to save the life of Asher, he was no longer held in favor. And if his life wasn't already bad and sad enough he was tortured again. He spent the first three years trapped in a coffin, after which Belle continued to punish him by giving him to other vampires to do as they pleased.

After that he just retreated to his mind palace. He never let his emotions show. He was indeed coldhearted. He surrounded his heart with ice and fire to keep from being hurt like that again. Jean-Claude realized then and there that he was cursed, but it didn't start from when he awoken as a vampire. It started when he was born. He was meant to be in the dark. He fought it too hard. Now whenever he looks in a mirror he doesn't see a man, he doesn't see beauty. What he see are the faces of those he loved and have died because they loved him back. He sees the faces of his beloved Julia and Juliana. He sees his sister frozen at 6, too young. He sees his brother's still face never to know what happened to his sister. He sees his stillborn child. Never to know the light of the sun, never to know heartbreak, never to know love. He sees all of this and more. Jean-Claude guards his heart so that it can never be hurt again.

That is until you. You melted the ice barrier. You froze the fire. You found his heart and you clawed it out. You call him a monster. He believes it. You say he can't love, you add a new scar. You take his heart out and you cut it open. He called you his mirror. That he can never delude himself around you. You took that as a good thing, but Anita it's not. You see him a vile creature that's meant to be put down. You thawed his heart and you stabbed it.

Anita you must remember that he guarded his heart so that he could never be hurt again. But he let you in. He loves you and he always will. It's up to you whether or not you can love a monster like him. Can you look past the surface and see his soul? Can you feel his love shinning out though the dark? Can you see his struggle to give you time and space even though his every instinct is to keep you close? He wants you so much. You chase away his darkness, he feels as if there is something to live for with you around. But here you are locking him away. Keeping him from you. You keep him in the cold and dark. All he wants is to feel the light and to feel love again.  
Jean-Claude has suffered enough throughout his long life, don't you think? "

Anita looked at me. Eyes glittering with unshed tears. She turned and left without another word. Presumably to find Jean-Claude, but one can only hope. Now it's time for me to find Sebastian. Best not keep him waiting. After having to re-live one of the most tragic story I really just want to find y husband and cuddle up with him. Life is too short to not be with your loved ones.


End file.
